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EnvEurope Environmental quality and pressures assessment across Europe: the LTER network as an integrated and shared system for ecosystem monitoring

EnvEurope in a nutshell

What the project EnvEurope is about

The toolbox for effective work and networking: demands from LTER-Europe and solutions provided by EnvEurope

Whatandhowtomeasure?

A framework for selection of parameters

A hitlist of top parameters?

Making parameters and methods available: the interactive tool ECOPAR

Puttingconceptsintopractice:testingtheEcologicalIntegrityapproachinthefield

Howtodealwithdata?TheneedforoverarchingInformationManagement

Making available information about data

Benefits from reduced diversity: controlled vocabularies

Towards greater accessibility and sharing of datasets

AnalysisofLTERdata:catchingecosystemchanges

Prove of concept: do LTER data hold the promise?

Addressing environmental “grand issues” through LTER data

CanLTERbeconnectedtothespace?

Isthere“lifeafterLIFE+”?ThelivingheritageofEnvEurope

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CONTENTS

EDITORS:AlessandraPugnetti1andMarkFrenzel2

WITh ThE cOnTRIbuTIOnS Of:CristianMihaiAdamescu3,MarcoBascietto4,AlessandroCampanaro5,PaoloColangelo5,PaolaFocaccia1,GiorgioMatteucci4,JohannesPeterseil6,MariangelaRavaioli1,DanielaSani7

AcknOWLEDgmEnTS:WeacknowledgeAndrewSier8andLoredanaAlfarè1fortheirpreciousrevisionofthetextlanguageandcontents

1 NationalResearchCouncil-InstituteofMarineSciences,Italy

2 HelmholtzCentreforEnvironmentalResearch–UFZ,Germany

3 UniversityofBucharest,Romania

4 NationalResearchCouncil-InstituteofAgro-EnvironmentalandForestBiology,Italy

5 NationalForestService-NationalCentreForestBiodiversity“BoscoFontana”ofVeronaandUniversityofRome“LaSapienza”-Dept.BiologyandBiotechnology,Italy

6 EnvironmentAgencyAustria,Austria

7 ASTER,Italy

8 CentreforEcology&Hydrology,UnitedKingdom

EnvEurope in a nutshellTheEnvEuropeprojectwas approvedunder theEnvironmentPolicyandGovernancecomponentoftheEuropeanUnion’sLIFE+programme,addressingthetheme“StrategicApproaches”.Priorityareasofactionforthisthemewere(a)thestrengtheningofthescientificbaseforenvironmentalpolicymaking;(b)contributingtotheimplementationaSharedEnvironmentalInformationSystem(SEIS1)and(c)supportingthedevelopmentofCopernicus(formerlycalledGlobalMonitoringforEnvironmentandSecurity,GMES2).WithinthisLIFE+context,EnvEuropewasconceivedinresponsetoecologicalresearchchallengesintheEuropeanLong-termEcosystemResearch(LTER-Europe3)sitenetwork.EnvEuropewasthefirstprojectcompletelydedicatedtotheLTER-Europenetwork.Theproject’staskswereto:- harmonizeLTER-Europenetworkactivities- streamlinestandardproceduresrequiredtosupportLTERscientific

research- increasethevisibilityofLTER-Europeasareferencenetworkfor

policymakersandenvironmentalmanagersattheEuropeanlevel.

EnvEuropeinvolved11LTER-Europecountries,17partnersand67LTERsites(around20%ofLTER-Europesites),sharedamongterrestrialsites,continentalandtransitionalwaters,andmarinesites.

1http://ec.europa.eu/environment/seis/2http://www.copernicus-masters.com/;http://land.copernicus.eu/3http://www.lter-europe.net/

TheprojectwasorganizedintoseveralActionsaddressingkeyprojectissues:• Developmentofacommonsetofkeylong-termecological

parametersandmeasurementprotocolsforuseinthefield• Collectionofdatainthefieldinacoordinated,site-basedexercise• Managementofinformationanddatasets• Investigationofsharedscientifichypothesesusingcasestudies

aimingatlong-termdataanalysis• Networkdesignaimedatproducingbetterinformationaboutthe

keycomponentsofLTER-Europe(sites,datasets,people,etc.).

EnvEuropeCountriesandsites

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BOX 2. The LTER networks

LTER networks consist of sites covering different ecosystems, each with research and monitoring facilities. Such networks are usually organised at a national level. The International LTER4 network (ILTER) was set up in 1993 by the US LTER5 and it was driven by the need to collaborate at local, regional and national levels through sharing and integrating knowledge and data, creating synergies and delivering scientifically sound results to decision makers and the public. At the European level, the LTER-Europe networking process started in 2004, fostered by the Network of Excellence “ALTER-Net” (“A Long-term Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Awareness Research Network). As of 2013, LTER-Europe comprises 21 formal national LTER member networks and more than 300 LTER sites in continental Europe and Israel.

ThemainsubjectofEnvEuropewas LTER, or Long-TermEcosystem Research andMonitoring(bOX 1).LTER is especially importantin our rapidly changingworld:climate change, land and seaexploitation, and global tradeare dramatically affecting theenvironmentandalteringe.g.theecosystemserviceswedependon, like provision of food andwater,airandwaterquality,andtheaestheticvalueofalandscape.Weneedasoundbaseof long-termecologicalobservationsanddata inordertodetectcurrentchangesinecosystems,developscenariosforthefutureandadaptnatural resource managementpractices.

LTERisorganisedinsitenetworksatthenational,regionalandthegloballevel(bOX 2).The regional network LTER-Europeisquitecomplex.ItiscomposedofahighnumberofLTERsitesrepresentingdifferentecosystemdomains(terrestrial,freshwater,marine).

Thesesiteshavebeenestablishedformultiplereasonsandareusedforbothresearchandmonitoringleadingtoalargeheterogeneityofparametersandmeasurementmethods.This has resulted in a hugeamount and diversity of LTERdataconnectedtomanydifferentthemes.EnvEuropewasconceivedasameansaddressingthiscomplexity,by harmonizing and improvingLTER-Europe’soperations, andat the same time dealing withseveral of the network’s keyaims. The project had a cross-domain approach, using 67LTER-Europe sites coveringterrestrial,wetland,continentalwater, transitional andmarineecosystemsin11LTER-Europecountries.The project involved 17beneficiaries and many otherinstitutionsasexternalpartners,allcommittedtothemanagementofLTER-Europesites.

Our main tasks in the projectconcerned:• Establishing a conceptualf r a m ew o r k a l l o w i n gcomparability and ranking ofecological parameters anddatagainedatLTERsitesacrossEurope

• Testing the LTER networkas a harmonized set of sites,throughmeasurementsinthefield of a broad spectrum ofparametersandenvironmentalqualityindicatorswithcommonmethodologies

• Gathering in a structuredway, managing and makingavailableinformation(theso-called“metadata”)aboutsites,persons and datasets acrossLTER-Europe

• Defining and providing toolsand recommendations forLTER dataset reporting andsharing,andforintegrateddatamanagementinthedomainoflong-termecologicalresearch

• Invest igat ing sc ient i f ichypotheses within the LTERcommunity, through casestudies aimed at long-term

metadata and data analysis,involving as many sites aspossible

• ProducingbetterinformationabouttheorganizationofLTER-Europe,toimproveinformationflowandincreasethevisibilityofLTER-Europeasareferencenetwork for scientists,policymakers and environmentalmanagers at the Europeanlevel.

Within these main tasks,EnvEuropewasstructuredtoalsoplayaroleintheconceptualandoperativecontextoftheSharedEnvironmental InformationSystem(SEIS)promotedby theEuropean Commission, andto initiate collaborations withCopernicus (formerlyGMES),ajoint initiative of the EuropeanCommission and EuropeanSpace Agency. The permanentLTER-Europesitenetworkmayindeed represent a valuablesystem for in situ validation ofsatellitedata,thussupportingtheimplementationoftheCopernicusprogramme.

BOX 1. Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) and Monitoring

Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) and Monitoring is based on gathering and analysis of multi-decadal ecological observations and data, at an appropriate temporal scale to support understanding and management of the environment. Many components of ecosystems are studied including living organisms and non-living components like air, water, mineral soil and sediments. LTER has both a question - (or problem-) driven research approach and a strong monitoring component. Thus LTER provides essential information about how ecosystems respond to global change: LTER data can be used to describe the state of an ecosystem, how the ecosystem may be changing, what may be driving that change, and the probability of the ecosystem shifting to another state, such as a higher or lower ecological quality.

What the projectEnvEurope is about

4http://www.ilternet.edu/5http://www.lternet.edu/

LTER-EuropeCountries

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A framework for selection of parametersA huge amount of ecologicaldatarelatedtoahighvarietyofecological themes is collectedoverthelong-termatLTERsites.One of our main challengesin EnvEurope was to identifyappropriateindicatorsdescribingthemainfeaturesofecosystems.Totacklethis issue,wecreatedanextensivesetofrecommendedindicators,targetingkeyelementsofecosystems.Itwasbasedontheconceptual“EcologicalIntegrity”framework,which focuseson theability tosustainableself-organisationofecosystems(bOX 3).

Our choice of parameterswas based on some crucialrequirements, i.e. that theyshouldbecommonlymeasuredat many sites, be regarded asimportant for the monitoredecosystem, enable indicationandcomparisonacrosssitesanddifferentecosystemsandincludethefocusofindividualsiteswithspecificresearchandmonitoringprograms.

DEmAnDS fROm LTER-EuROPE SOLuTIOnS OffERED bY EnVEuROPE

HowtoharmonizetheLTERparameters?

Conceptualframeworkof Ecosystem Integrity

RankingoftopLTERparameters

Testing in the fieldofEcologicalIntegrityparameters

Howtomakeparametersand

methodsavailable?

Interactivetool”EcOPAR”:

collectionofabioticandbioticindicatorsandinternationallyestablishedmethods

HowtomanageLTERdatasets?

OrganizationofandaccesstoLTERinformation:

DEImStoolformetadatadelivery,searchandview

Establishmentofacommoncontrolledvocabularyformachine-basedretrieval:

The thesaurus “EnvThes”

Howtoshareandmakeaccessible

LTERdatasets?

Commonreporting format

Testingofdistributedonline data access

LTER-Europe data policy

IsLTER-Europeprepared

tocatchecosystemchange?

Trans-ecodomainapproachtoenvironmental“grand Issues”

AnalysisofLTER-dataincase studies

ThelinkofLTER-Europewith

RemoteSensing(Copernicus)?

Strategic contactsatthenationallevelinmostLTERCountries

FirsttestsforLTERnetworksasservice user and data providerforCopernicus

BOX 3. The Ecological Integrity concept

According to the Ecological Integrity concept, the main components to describe the pressures on, and state of, ecosystems are their structures and processes. Ecosystem structures are well characterized by biotic diversity (of flora and fauna) and abiotic heterogeneity (of soils, sediments, water, air) forming habitats. Ecosystem processes (cycling of energy, matter and water) are characterized by indicators of inputs, storages and outputs. The indicators of “Ecosystem Integrity” are represented by parameters accessible by conventional methods of ecosystem quantification ending up in a set of parameters recommended to be calculated or measured in many local instances. This set is based on the focal parameters of ecosystem research which can be provided by LTER networks. This approach facilitates one of the major challenges for LTER trans-domain indication, aiming at comparability of measurements for terrestrial, freshwater and marine sites, trying to find suitable indicator-parameter sets from all sites.

DemandsfromLTER-EuropeandsolutionsfromEnvEurope

TheoverallpictureofpathwaysandinteractionsoftheelementsofEcologicalIntegrity

The toolbox for effective work and networking: demands from LTER-Europe and solutions provided by EnvEurope

What and how to measure?

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BOX 4. The international ranking survey of parameters

We applied four ranking criteria for each parameter: (i) Ecological relevance, (ii) Sensitivity to changes, (iii) Measurement effort, (iv) Instrumentation level. The parameters covered different ecodomains (terrestrial, rivers, lakes and marine ecosystems) and they were ranked by more than 300 participants from 33 countries. Participants were mainly researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds (plant, animal and landscape ecology, soil science, ecohydrology, modelling). Most participants were dealing with terrestrial ecosystems (around 60 %), reflecting the predominant component of the LTER- community. The result of this survey (which covered about 200 parameters) shows that the relevance of parameters selected for the survey was supported by the overall high ranking values given by the participants. However, although this did not help to separate the “good” from the “bad” parameters, it confirmed the agreement of the scientific community to the selected parameters based on the Ecological Integrity approach.

making parameters and methods available: the interactive tool EcOPAR6BasedontheEcologicalIntegrity-driven parameter selection, wecollated established methodsand fed these into the newlydeveloped interactive webtool ECOPAR (ECOlogicalPARameters for ecosystemresearch).ECOPAR is a living databasethat provides a comprehensivecollection of abiotic and bioticindicators and internationallyestablished methods. It coversparameters and respectivemeasurementmethodsincludingthe relevant references forterrestrial, freshwater andmarine sites, along with theparameterpropertiesimportantfor comparison of data (e.g.measurement scale, frequency,levelofprecision).

Elements of Ecological Integrity

Indicators of Ecological integrity

Examples for parameters

STRucTuRES Biotic Diversity Flora Diversity Species list and abundance of vascular plants

Fauna Diversity Species list and abundance of breeding birds

Within Habitat Structure Vegetation structure within habitats

STRucTuRES Abiotic Heterogeneity Soil Bulk density

Atmosphere Air temperature

Habitat Land cover

PROcESSES Energy Budget Input Photoshynthetic active radiation

Storage Above-ground Net Primary Production

Output Respiration

Efficiency measures Respiration per biomass

PROcESSES Matter Budget Input Wet and dry deposition of atmospheric nitrogen

Storage Nitrogen fixation

Output Nitrate leaching

Efficiency measures Litter decomposition

PROcESSES Water Budget Input Precipitation

Storage Soil moisture

Output Surface runoff

Efficiency measures Ratio transpiration / evaporation

6http://www.enveurope.eu/products

Parameters,IndicatorsandElementsofEcologicalIntegrity

A hitlist of top parameters?Based on the comprehensiveparameters list obtained bythis approach,we launched anonlinerankingsurveyaboutthe“preferredparametersfor(Long-term)EcosystemResearch”.Theideawastoboildownthenumberofparametersbasedonrankingsby experts in the internationalLTERcommunity.Through thisprocess we created a soundbase for the recommendationof parameters for long-termecosystem research andmonitoring(bOX 4).

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As the first project dedicatedto the LTER-Europe network,EnvEurope provided theumbrellaforasetofharmonizedfield activities, focussingon an agreed core set ofcommonlyestablishedecologicalparametersandrelatedmethods.All 67 LTER sites - terrestrial,freshwaterandmarine-involvedin EnvEurope participated inthis field activity, which wasperformedin2011and2012.

Our choice of the parametersto be field-tested was framedwithin the Ecological Integrityconcept and based on someotherkeyselectioncriteria:• Feasibilityforpartners• Relevance for different

ecosystems (same or similarparametertestedindifferentecodomains)

• Complementarityofmeasuredparameters

• RelevanceforLTERscientificanalysis

• Relevance for indicatorassessment

• Suitability forup-scaling andremotesensing

Someoftheselectedparametersare specific for a certain typeof ecosystem (e.g. terrestrialor marine). Nevertheless, theoriginality and strength of thisEnvEurope activity lies in thefact that some parameters arecrosscutting among ecosystemtypes (e.g. meteorology,substrate chemistry, habitatstructure, phenological cycle,diversity of plant and animalspecies, primary productivity),forming a common base for atrans-ecodomain comparisonand environmental qualityevaluation.The field exercise producedmore than 300 datasets andmore than 15,000 raw datavaluesthatwereaggregatedandanalysedtoprovideanoverviewofecologicaltrendsatEuropeanLTERsites.

Putting concepts into practice: testing the Ecological Integrity approach in the field

Testinginthefield:parametersmeasuredinEnvEurope,groupedbyindicatorandcolour-codedbyecodomain

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Alotofdatahavebeencollectedfrom LTER sites withoutfollowinganystandardsintermsofcontent,fileformat,metadataand storage, or following onlysite-specificstandards.Today the heterogeneity ofpast and present data is a bigchallenge that modern LTERinformation management mustdeal with in order to make theinformationavailable.This situation hampers easydataintegrationanddistributionaswell as cross-ecodomainandcross-siteanalysis.Addressing the need forecological knowledge synthesisandavailabilityinthenearfuturerequires the application ofgood information managementapproaches that go beyondsimple data storage, to developa living, globally-integrated

information network withthe capacity to discover,access, interpret, process anddistributedata.Analysingtrendsof environmental changes,identifyingdriversandprovidingoptions for mitigation andadaptation are key challengesforlong-termecologicalresearchandmonitoringinEurope.Access to reliable andharmonised databases isessential to address thesechallenges.In EnvEurope, we tested andprovidedtoolsandtechnologiesin order to enhance theaccessibility of data fromdifferentLTER-Europesitesanddelivered recommendationsfor site and network level datamanagement.

making available information about dataOrganizing and providing clearand reliable information aboutavailable LTER observations(so called “metadata”) is one ofthe key aspects with regard tousability of data and successfuldatasharing.Creating an easily accessibleand comprehensive catalogueof existing data is therefore animportant task for integratedecological data management.In this respect not only dowe require metadata aboutdatasets (e.g.whichparametersaremeasured,forhowlong,withwhichmethods), but also aboutLTER sites (e.g. site location,kind of long-term research)and persons involved (e.g. sitemanager,fieldstaff).Using existing standards, user

requirements and relatedlegislation, we developeda new tool for deliveringmetadata, providing standardsand guidelines for the entireLTER-Europenetwork.The core component ofmetadata management withinEnvEurope is “DEImS7”, theDrupal Ecological InformationManagementSystem.The metadata specificationswithin DEIMS aim to ensureinteroperability within theinternationalLTERnetwork.

How to deal with data? The need for overarching information management

7http://data.lter-europe.net/deims/ Geo-viewerinDEIMSenablingtozoomintothesiteleveltoretrieveinformationaboutsinglesites

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communityisstoredinsimplefileformats and offline data accessis the most common means.In this respect EnvEuroperesembles a characteristicsubset of the LTER-Europenetwork and provides a goodtest environment both fordata exchange and technicalevaluation. The design of acommon reporting format inorder to facilitate the deliveryof existing data in a structured,harmonised way was animportant first step carried outin EnvEurope in order to builda common database of LTERdata. We also tested tools andapplications for distributedon-line data access, like LinkedData Services9 and SensorObservationService10.Information managementstrategies at European andglobal scales are currentlyfocusing increasingly on openaccesstodata.However,accesstoLTERdataisstillhamperedby

adiversityofaccessrules,mostlydefined at the organisation oreventheresearchteamlevel.In order to overcome thissituation and to move towardsopening data for scientificresearch and analysis, wedeveloped a data policy. ThepurposeoftheEnvEuropeDataPolicy is to set up fundamentalprinciples concerning: (i)facilitating collaboration amongthe project’s participants; (ii)ensuring timely submission ofdatafortheusewithintheproject;(iii) protecting researchers´

benefits from reduced diversity: controlled vocabulariesA common descriptivevocabularyiscrucialformachine-based exchange, and searchfor metadata and datasets.Thereforewesetupacommoncontrolled vocabulary withinEnvEurope, implemented inthe thesaurus “EnvThes”8

(EnvironmentalThesaurus).EnvThes is based on relatedexisting thesauri and othercontrolled vocabularies, andwas extended to meet theneedsoftheinternationalLTERcommunity.Itnowservesasthebasisforlanguageintegrationtoaid the description of datasetsandparametersinLTER-Europe.

Towards greater accessibility and sharing of datasetsThe majority of data from theLTER sites of the EnvEurope

8http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes.html9http://linkeddata.org/10http://www.ogcnetwork.net/SOS

IntellectualPropertyRights(IPR)andrightstopublishtheirresults;(iv) identifying rules for the useof data within the EnvEuropeproject and by third parties;and (v) providing the broaderscientific community with easyaccess to data available withinEnvEurope.This Data Policy is a first stepin providing harmonised accessrulestoLTERdata.ThereisstillalongwaytogotobutEnvEuropehastakenthefirststepstowardsopening up access to LTER-Europedata.

Prove of concept: do LTER data hold the promise?Large amounts of data, inparticular observations overlong time periods, have beencollected at each LTER-Europesite to document the waysin which ecological systemsare responding to changingenvironmental drivers (e.g. byshifts in species occurrence,loss of biodiversity, changes inairandwaterquality).However, solutions to manyenvironmental problems arestill elusive, due to limitedaccess to data and lack ofsynthesisstudies.Integration of datasets andscientificanalysesfrommultiplesites is needed to comparecontinental-scale variation inmultipledrivers,andtoidentifyregionswheremultiple driversareinteractingtoaffectcoupledhumanandnaturalsystems.Bringing together existinglong-termdatasetsisbeneficialnotonlyforLTERnetworksbutalsoforparticularsites.Itopens

Addressing environmental “grand issues” through LTER dataBased on the available long-term data, we identified fourmain environmental “grandissues” to be addressed andfostered by EnvEurope,concerningchangesin:1. Biogeochemical processes,

climateandbiodiversity2. Ecosystem processes and

disturbances3. Ecosystemservices4. Socio-economic pressures

on the functioning of theecosystems

Withintheseissues,weinitiatedseveral specific “case studies”focussing on long-term dataanalysis addressing differentenvironmentalissues(bOX 5, 6 and 7).

up the possibility of cross-sitecomparisons and new types ofanalyses,moving from the sitetotheregionalscale.ThiswillimprovethevisibilityofboththenetworkandindividualLTER sites, stimulating newsite-based projects andproviding insights for goodenvironmental management,connectingsciencetopolicy.EnvEuropetooktheopportunityto develop a shared databasefocused on the identifiedparameterlist.All sites contributed to thisdatabase,whichnowcomprisesmore than 220 files from 67sites across Europe, resultingin about 450,000 observationvalues starting from theseventiesofthelastcentury.

Analysis of LTER data: catching ecosystem changes

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BOX 5. Does chronic airborne nitrogen deposition cause a threat to forest biodiversity?

In many European countries airborne nitrogen coming from agriculture and fossil fuel burning exceeds critical thresholds and threatens the functioning of ecosystems. One effect is that too much nitrogen stimulates the growth of only a few plants, which outcompete other, often rare, species. As a consequence biodiversity declines. Though this is known to happen in natural and semi-natural grasslands, it has never been shown in forest ecosystems where management is a strong, mostly overriding, determinant of biodiversity. We studied long-term monitoring data from 28 intensively observed forest sites across Europe to analyse temporal trends in plant species cover and diversity. At sites where nitrogen deposition exceeded the critical load, the cover of forest plant species preferring nutrient-poor soils (oligotrophic species) significantly decreased, whereas plant species preferring nutrient-rich soils (eutrophic species) showed an opposite - though weak - trend. These results demonstrate that airborne nitrogen has changed the structure of forest floor vegetation in Europe. Plant species diversity did not decrease significantly within the observed period but the majority of newly established species was found to be eutrophic. Hence we hypothesize that without reducing nitrogen deposition below the critical load forest biodiversity will decline in the future.

Formoreinformationsee:Dirnböck,T.,Grandin,U.,Bernhardt-Römermann,M.,Beudert,B.,Canullo,R.,Forsius,M.,Grabner,M.-T.,Holmberg,M.,Kleemola,S.,Lundin,L.,Mirtl,M.,Neumann,M.,Pompei,E.,Salemaa,M.,Starlinger,F.,Staszewski,T.,Uziębło,A.K.2013.ForestfloorvegetationresponsetonitrogendepositioninEurope.GlobalChangeBiology(inpress).

BOX 6. Is the timing of the growing season (“phenology”) of plant species changing?

Recorded changes in the seasonal timing of plant and animal species (phenology) has been proposed as tool to monitor systematically the state of the ecosystems and to detect changes triggered by perturbation of the environmental conditions. This study addressed the aquatic ecosystems (marine, transitional and freshwaters) and their microalgal component (the so called “phytoplankton”). The main aims were to: (i) identify critical phenological signals at LTER sites; (ii) identify relations with ecological drivers (nutrients, physical/chemical parameters, climate indices); (iii) compare changes in these signals across different aquatic sites; (iv) estimate the impacts on the life cycle events in phytoplankton population due to climate

changes. A total of 30 LTER sites (15 freshwater, 6 marine and 9 transitional) were considered. The conclusions of the study pointed out that: (i) the LTER sites are good sentinels for identify phenological changes; (ii) the trends for most of the LTER sites are showing an anticipation of the spring peak; (iii) an increase in water temperature is the main factor for the difference in the phenology pattern across sites.

ExamplesofdecreasingoligotrophicspeciesacrossEurope(Clexc:CriticalloadexceedanceofNitrogen).

Relationshipbetweenthespringpeakofphytoplanktongrowth(chlorophyll)andwatertemperature(examplefromLakeGalten-Sweden)

Seasonal timing (phenology) ofmicroscopic algae (phytoplankton): the“phytoplanktoncalendar”(examplefromtheLTERsite“LagoonofVenice”;BernardiAubryetal,ScientiaMarina,77-1,2013).

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BOX 8. How can LTER site knowledge be connected with remote sensing data in order to make quick assessments of Ecosystem Integrity (EI) and Ecosystem Services (ESS)?The approach to this question encompassed four challenges, to: (i) ensure support for the EU biodiversity strategy about assessment of ESS throughout Europe, (ii) provide a homogeneous and (iii) cross-domain data base for LTER sites and (iv) make use of a publicly available product based on satellite data, the CORINE land cover/land use maps of Europe (CLC, available for 1990, 2000, 2006). We combined CLC data of individual sites with a matrix of ranked contributions of each CLC class to ESS and EI. Thereby we could produce spatially explicit site maps showing the ESS value of occurring CLC categories and the changes taken place from 1990, 2000 and 2006. Moreover, the basic matrix with ranking values was adjusted by local knowledge of LTER site managers. This is a starting point for a pan-European assessment of ESS and EI at the landscape scale

One of our tasks in EnvEuropewas to initiate collaborationbetween LTER-Europe and theremotesensingactivitiesrelatedto environmental monitoring,specificallywithCopernicus.At the European level,Copernicus (formerly GlobalMonitoring for Environmentand Security - GMES), is aEU strategic programme thatreceives major observationalinputs from satellites in theearthobservationdomain.Most of our efforts weredevoted to understandingthe opportunities of a two-way collaboration with the

Copernicus programme, toprovide an assessment of insitu data usability and to testapplicability of large scaleremote sensing productsfor long-term ecosystemmonitoringinEurope.We carried out a surveyto determine if the in situ requirements provided by theCopernicus in situ component(the GISC project) could befulfilledbytheLTERcommunity.We also wanted to assesswhether there was scope forfurther cooperation followingEnvEurope. During the timeframe of EnvEurope, mostpartnershadestablishedformalcontact and cooperation withCopernicus representatives intheirowncountries.An example of interactionbetween LTER data andCopernicus products wasdevelopedwithin EnvEurope inthecrucialcontextofEcosystemServices(ESS)andofEcosystemIntegrity(EI)(bOX 8).

Can LTER be connected to the space?

BOX 7. Is tree-ring chronology changing due to past human and natural disturbances?Similar patterns of tree physiological growth follow related natural and anthropogenic disturbances, within a given area and time period. The growth response indicates the stability and/or the adaptation capabilities of the trees. Tree rings are a very inexpensive and straightforward data source, which is available wherever and whenever trees of a suitable age occur, or where adequate preserved wood samples are available for the purpose of such analysis. The main conclusion of the study suggests a slow, but steady higher frequency and amplitude of the pointer years, denoting the cumulative incidence of natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and acting as a warning signal. In fact, translated into a sound wave, this signal would have a higher and higher pitch, in close connection to the increasingly frequent disturbances.

Frequencyofanomalousgrowthtranslatedintomusic:higherpitch(frequency)soundwaveonamusicstave

IncreasingfrequencyofanomalousgrowthyearsforsprucetreesinBucegiLTERsite(Romania)

ChangesinEIthroughtime:examplefromBrailaIslands(Romania,DanubeRiver)

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cOnSORTIumcoordinating beneficiary:ITALY,NationalResearchCouncil,InstituteofMarineSciences.coordinator: Alessandra PugnettiProject manager: mariangela Ravaioli

Associated beneficiaries:EnvironmentAgencyAustria(AUSTRIA);InstituteofBiodiversityandEcosystemResearch–BulgarianAcademyofSciences(BULGARIA);UniversityofJyväskylä(FINLAND);SenckenbergResearchInstituteandNaturalHistoryMuseum(GERMANY);HelmholtzCentreforEnvironmentalResearch(GERMANY);UniversityofDebrecen(HUNGARY);CentreforEcologicalResearch,HungarianAcademyofSciences(HUNGARY);ItalianNationalResearchCouncil(ITALY);NationalForestServiceofItaly(ITALY);ASTERS.cons.p.a.(ITALY);AleksandrasStulginskisUniversity(LITHUANIA);EuropeanRegionalCentreforEcohydrologyU/AUnesco-InternationalInstituteofPolishAcademyofSciences(POLAND);InstituteforEcologyofIndustrialAreas(POLAND);UniversityofBucharest(ROMANIA);ForestResearchandManagementInstitute(ROMANIA);SpanishNationalResearchCouncil(SPAIN);SwedishUniversityofAgriculturalSciences(SWEDEN).

Project LIfE08 EnV/IT/000399 co-financed by the European commission Programme LIfE+ (2010-2013)

In building a site network forbiodiversity and ecosystemresearch since 2004, LTER-Europe has identified a set ofrequirements in the field of

successfully tackled theserequirements within its runtime(2010-2013). The tasks ofEnvEurope were planned withthe clear aim to enhance LTER-Europe. With its successfulcompletion, EnvEurope leavesa network that is arguably in amuch better state that it wasfour years previously. It is moreintegrated, more active andhas greater capacity to deliverand support vital research.The products of EnvEurope

cross-site workflows, networkdesign, tools for informationmanagement, harmonizationand standardization. TheLIFE+ project EnvEurope has

represent, for LTER-Europe, theentrypointforthenextphase indesigningtheEuropeanresearchinfrastructure landscape inthe field of biodiversity andecosystemresearch.LTER-Europe, with its highlyinstrumentedobservationalsitesand socio-ecological researchplatforms, is now ready tocooperateandintegratewithbothlarge scale monitoring schemes(including remote sensing) andexperimentalapproaches.

Is there “LIFE after LIFE+”? The living heritage of EnvEurope

LTERsites:terrestrial(greendots),continentalwaters(lightbluedots),transitionalandmarinewaters(bluedots)

LTERsitetypologies:Platforms(observationregionupto10,000km2:yellowdots)andsites(observationregionupto10,000ha).Complexsites(reddots)includemoreecosystemtypes;simplesites(greendots)includeonlyone

DistributionofLTERsitesamongthemainEuropeanbiogeographicalregions

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Informationandcontacts:www.enveurope.eu - enveurope@ismar.cnr.it